What Obama will say in his address (Sounds Promising To Me)

He will not confront or scold the left. "This is a case for bold action, not a stick in the eye to our supporters," said an official involved in speech preparation. "That’s not how President Obama thinks. The politics of triangulation don’t live in this White House."

Obama will try to reassure the left about his commitment to a public option, or government insurance plan. Aides said they are rethinking what he will say about this. He wants to thread the needle of voicing support for a public option, without promising to kill health reform to get it.

The White House line has been: "We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition. There are lots of different ways to get there." But now he’s going to step on the gas a little harder. One top official gave this formulation: "He has consistently said that he thinks the public option is an important way to make sure that there is both cost and competition control. He’s also said consistently that if someone can show him a better way or another way to get there, he’d be happy to look at it. But he’s never committed to going with another way. He’s always said he’d be happy to look at any proposal that gets to these goals, but that he thinks this is probably the best better way to do it."

more:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26794.html

I don't want to hear parsing. I want action! I didn't work my butt off for Obama to deliver some repuke-lite health care double-speak.

is a sell out in my opinion, and will be tossing us under the bus.

And said "sign this" , then waved his veto pen around. Obama's tone has been markedly different even if he makes one veto threat now.

unless, of course, he was never serious about actually reforming the system.

...but there are over 300 Democrats in Congress, nearly all of whom have different ideas on how to go about reforming the insurance system. I'm certain that Obama wants a public option, but he's most likely accepted that there just isn't enough votes in both the House and Senate to get one. Given that, he is going to have to make some concessions if he wants to be able to sign a bill and avoid suffering a humiliating defeat on this issue as Clinton did in '94.

Guys, reports are that this "compromise" being worked out between Obama and Sen. Snowe will prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to anyone with "pre-existing" conditions. MY GOD, IS THAT NOT WORTH HAVING???

is present his own plan and push it through.

A President should lead. Obama is still behaving like a Senator.

The question is, does he have the guts? Is he willing to use the power of the Presidency - say, to veto a budget - in order to get what he wants from Congress?

He wrote his own bill and told Congress to take it or leave it. In his '94 State of the Union address to Congress he waved a pen threatening to veto any bill which didn't include everything he wanted.

Not that what Clinton wanted weren't good things, but it left him no room to compromise in order to get something passed. We cannot make the same mistake again or the 2010 midterms will make 1994 feel like a daylong spa visit.

If we can't get the whole pie, let's take half and work on getting the rest slice by slice.

I remember him handing it off to his wife, who made a royal mess of it, effectively torpedoing it with her personality.

Oh okay, his WIFE wrote the bill on his behalf and then handed it to Congress with a "take it or leave it" sticky note pasted on top. The bottom line is, the Clinton Administration said from the beginning they were not willing to compromise at all, then spent nearly all of 1994 knocking around the insurance companies. Not that what he said wasn't true, but it caused the insurance industry to rally against him and his reform plan.

If we make the same mistakes we did fifteen years ago, we will suffer another huge defeat, and the first step towards reforming health insurance will be pushed another 15-20 years down the road.

Guys, half the loaf is better than none at all. Is it really that unreasonable to tell private insurance companies, "Okay, you've got 3 to 5 years to get your act together or you can expect to see some very unpleasant legislation. Is that perfectly clear?"

I work in corporate America, and I assure you there are few things that send executives scrambling more than a threat of federal regulation.

Without an alternative source of insurance to provide competition to private insurance companies, they will use their ability to raise premium rates to price "undesirables" out of the market.

The only other way, beside a public option, to prevent the insurance companies from screwing the public is to implement price controls on insurance companies. Fat chance of that happening.

It never ceases to amaze me how little understanding the public has of basic economic principles .

These companies have had DECADES of practice in f*cking with their customers -- does Obama REALLY think they are going to play nice if he says please?

I wonder how many insurance lepers are really out there? I have had several in my family -- can't get insurance at ANY price. And those same folks will be priced out of the market if this POS *bipartisan walking abortion passes, just so this administration claimed they *did* something (while pocketing campaign contributions by the bucketloads from lobbyists).

That does not mean they will do it with an affordable premium.

They will welcome all the healthy young on to the rolls with a mandate and make big money.

But they will charge outrageous rates to anyone they do not want. Got cancer... yeah we will cover you at 50k a month.

They will make billions more then they are making now.

Hmmm...good point. Certainly that is something that will need to be addressed. I hope it's come up in the talks between the White House and Senator Snowe. We may want to contact Olympia Snowe's office. www.senate.gov.

Keep in mind, though...charging outrageously high premiums could end up "triggering" a public option. It is imperative to keep the threat of regulation and/or a public option over the heads of insurance companies. However, the Democrats must keep control of Congress for that to happen. All the more reason we must get a bill to the president's desk. We have to convince the American people that we are capable of governing--otherwise, we'll kiss our majorities good-bye.

If everyone is required to purchase private insurance (which would be a plus for the insurance companies), I'm certain the legislation could also prohibit insurance companies from charging higher premiums to those with pre-existing conditions--or, at least cap any surcharge at say, 10%.

I'm going to call the offices of Senator Snowe and Senator Ben Nelson on Tuesday, and I suggest all of you do the same. Tell them if a mandate is enacted and pre-existing condition exclusions abolished, those with PEC's should NOT be forced to pay higher premiums.

Great news! The Senate Finance Committee's bill bans insurance companies from excluding applicants with Pre-Existing conditionsdoes NOT allow insurance companies to charge higher premiums to those with PEC's. Only smokers could be charged higher premiums.

:woohoo:


GEORGE STEPHANOUPOLIS' 09/08/09 ARTICLE (www.abcnews.com)

Based on my quick read, Here are some highlights:

- By 2013, Americans would be required to have health insurance or pay a fine. Depending on income level, the fines could be as high as $3800 per family.

- Native Americans, the very poor and those with religious objections are exempt from this new mandate.

- There’s no mandate on companies to provide insurance to their employees.

- Health insurance companies bear a big share of the costs with two new taxes:
 A $6 billion annual tax that will be divided among companies based on market share
 A tax on so-called Cadillac plans; insurance plans valued at more than $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for a family of four.

- Expansion of Medicaid to those up to 133 percent of the poverty level.

- Federal subsidies to help those up to 300 percent of the poverty level buy insurance

- No new government-run insurance program, aka “public option”

- As an alternative to the public option, the bill creates and funds non-profit “cooperatives” that will provide insurance coverage

- New regulations on insurance companies: e.g. Bans denial of coverage or higher rates b/c of pre-existing conditions. Insurance companies would still be allowed, however, to charge higher rates for smokers.

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Not being a bunch of sheep following in lock step when the President is going in the wrong direction?

I am more disheartened by the latest article on CNN about the WH drafting their own plan and leaning toward dropping the public option. Not sure who to believe and will hope that the administration does the right thing and supports real health care reform.

If Obama goes with the trigger option, independents will be pleased because it will look like he stood up to the left-wingers. In a country where only about 20% consider themselves "liberal" (as opposed to about 35% who say their "conservatives"), it's a smart political tactic.

FUCKING BULLSHIT

OPEC is designed to control the access to and the price of oil by eliminating competition. In other words, OPEC controls the oil markets by controlling the supply.

The insurance companies currently control access to and the price of health care. Limiting the "supply" of health care is what gives them their power to amass such huge profits.

Without the public having an affordable ALTERNATIVE SOURCE of SUPPLY of health care, nothing will change. You can put all kinds of restrictions on the insurance companies, and it will make NOT one IOTA of difference.

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and that the contents of whatever number of versions there are are undergoing almost constant change. I don't think they ever expected so much outrage from reasonable progressives, didn't think they had to listen. Maybe they are getting the message. At any rate I'd bet that whatever that speech looks like right now doesn't have much in common with what will be delivered three days from now.